Second Town of Palm Beach resident tests positive for COVID-19

Thursday

Two Palm Beach residents have now tested positive for COVID-19, and Town Manager Kirk Blouin said many more cases should be expected as testing becomes more available in the days ahead.

A second town resident has tested positive for COVID-19 disease, and a third resident has been tested and is awaiting results, a town official said Thursday.

On Monday, the town announced that the first town resident to test positive was a woman who had recently returned to town from Europe. She was taken by Palm Beach Fire-Rescue to a local hospital after falling ill on Saturday. She tested positive two days later, Town Manager Kirk Blouin said.

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, there were 29 people in Palm Beach County, out of 74 tested, who were diagnosed with coronavirus. Statewide, the number of positive cases jumped to 390, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Zeidman that there is at least one town employee who is self-isolated after not feeling well. There are "plenty" of other town employees who are working from home as a precaution against getting the virus, she said.

People, unfortunately, are focusing on the number of those who have tested positive, without realizing that the actual number of people who have the virus is undoubtedly much higher, said Blouin.

"There are many people who don’t meet the criteria to be tested and who have exhibited many of the symptoms [of the disease] but their doctors have advised them to just stay home and isolate themselves," he said. "There are not enough test kits available, even if they did meet the criteria."

As more people are tested for COVID-19 in the days ahead, the number of positive cases should be expected to soar, he said.

There are 600,000 test kits on the way to Florida, but only 1 percent of those have arrived at their destinations, he said.

Many people who have the disease aren’t displaying symptoms and don’t realize they have it, but are capable of exposing others to it, Blouin said.

Zeidman said it’s imperative that people heed the warnings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has said the United States is 10 to 14 days behind Italy.

As of Thursday, Italy, which is entering its fourth week of a national lockdown, had 41,035 positive cases, and surpassed China in the number of deaths, 3,405 to 3,245.

According to the CDC, the United States has 10,442 cases of the COVID-19 disease and 150 deaths from the disease.

"If we don’t start to do what the CDC is telling us to do, which is socially isolate ourselves, and all of the other things we are talking about [such as frequent hand washing], we will have a rapid descent into hell," Zeidman said.